The U.S. Junior Closed (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 13-16) began with a big upset, with FM Elliot Liu
defeating GM-elect Alex Lenderman with Black in a wild King's Indian defense. Among the ICC spectators was GM Hikaru Nakamura, who had just finished drawing GM Ponomariov in San Sebastian, Spain. He lol-ed at Lenderman's final try, 35.Qa2 and called Bc2+ in the air. The other decisive result of the first round was Michael Lee defeating 2008 U.S. Junior Open Champion Maxx Coleman.